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Essay On Hemingway's Short Story 'Hills Like White Elephants'

640 Words3 Pages

The operation, black licorice, and barren White Elephants left off in the distance? What if this was all life was about, all there was to ever know left a bad taste behind. In the short story “Hills Like White Elephants” tension in relationships is revealed through the strong symbols like the “operations”, “station tracks”, and the ever so upbeat “jig”. White elephants are “possessions that are useless or troublesome, especially difficult to dispose of”, this symbol is referred to again and again in the short story through the heartbreaking dialogue. In Hemingway's short story "Hills Like White Elephants,” an insidiously subdued tone is created through the lack of description among the characters, Hemingway's structure of theory of omission, and an array of literary elements. The operation that troubles the young couple is the future presence of an “it” tarnishing their relationship. The two of them, being equally as insensitive to the subject, struggle to declare the operation at hand all together. Forcing the reader to develop their own understanding of the operation at hand on their own. The American (being a symbol of freedom and power) and the manner in which Hemingway introduces the two characters in the beginning, “The American and the girl with him sat at a table in the shade, …show more content…

Fertility is contrasted with the barrenness of the operation they are discussing. Hemingway uses little detail it his works, although clear understanding is present through symbolism, dialogue, and use of metaphors. His style forces readers to understand the meaning as a whole with only the surface level art that he creates. Hemingway's uses his own theory of omission to talk about man’s dominance without directly stating it. He tells the reader just enough with the dialogue and description of the setting to provide under the water symbols and meanings of his

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Ernest Hemingway uses repetition and ambiguity in his story, “Hills like White Elephants'' to exhibit the idea that in order to maintain a healthy long-term relationship, communication and consideration of one another’s values are needed. Throughout this story, a couple, Jig and the American, are having an intense and emotional conversation about whether Jig should have an abortion. She displays very sensitive feelings about the procedure, and the American takes advantage of this by trying to manipulate her, repeatedly stating it is her choice: “if [she doesn’t] want to [she doesn’t] have to. [He] wouldn’t have [her] do it if [she] didn’t want to” (477). By doing this he falsely implies he has no opinion, but later contradicts himself by

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In the short story “Hills Like White Elephants,” by Ernest Hemingway, there is a relationship unfolding, a complex relationship difficult to understand. The relationship is revealed by a conversation between a man and a woman, a topic of conversation that people rarely discussed in the period that the story was set. After researching interpretations, it is consistently said “She is pregnant, and he wants her to have an abortion” (Weeks 76), to which I agree that this conversation is about abortion. With the man seemingly pushing the topic and the girl hesitant and questionable, it is unsure as to the result of their conversation. However, it is my belief that she chose to follow her heart and not get the abortion.

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The man she is with keeps pushing her to make a life-changing decision about an abortion and she says, “I realize… Can’t we maybe stop talking?,” (Hemingway 3). Including this issue specifically is bold for Hemingway as it is controversial, yet he crafts it to bring even more attention to the Girl’s rights and intentionally characterizes her with this strong will and independence. She later threatens to scream, demonstrating that the Girl is unafraid to bring attention to this altercation. Hemingway provides the Girl with a voice that many women did not have. The man craves authority and manipulates her by saying, “I think [getting the abortion is] the best thing to do.

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In Hemingway’s story, the relation between the couple is fragile ending in an abortion, as Wallace’s couple seem to have a negative perspective over abortion. With similar issues revolving abortion, the intuitive message challenges love and morals. Although Wallace’s story builds upon

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Throughout the short story (1), “Hills Like White Elephants,” Ernest Hemingway is speaking about a seemingly unwanted pregnancy and a woman’s uneasiness with going through an abortion. However, Hemingway never explicitly says in this work of fiction (2) that it is about abortion or that the woman, Jig, is uncomfortable with it, but uses symbolism (3) to present this to the audience. At the time “Hills like White Elephants” was published, in 1927, abortion was illegal in most places and a very taboo subject that wasn’t to be openly discussed in public. Thus, Hemingway relied greatly upon the use of symbolism to get his message across for this reason as well as the third person narrator (4) that did not give insight into the character’s thoughts within this piece of literature (5) . He uses symbols such as the train station, white hills, the baggage, and the drinks to point towards the underlying internal conflict (6) of Jig’s decision that is being heavily influenced by the American man, who wants Jig to get the abortion.

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The girl suggests that ‘“Once they take it away, you never get it back’” but the American quickly refutes the idea (81). II. Topic Sentence- In Hemingway’s “In Another Country” and “A Day’s Wait” uncertainty is a prominent theme.

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Relationships are the core of everything we do in life. We love someone, so we do something for them; we value someone 's opinion, so we respect them; we dislike someone, so we avoid them. Relationships cause people to act on their emotions which impact how and why they do the things they do. Ernest Hemingway’s short story “Hills Like White Elephants” is about a couple trying to come to a conclusion on a delicate matter. While the man strongly promotes his opinion the girl is hesitant but wants to do whatever will make him happy.

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The conflict between the two characters is the issue of abortion and whether or not the girl will go through it. Hemingway does not tell us that the girl is pregnant but hints it throughout the story referring to “the operation” as having an abortion. From the start, you can take

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The dialogue in Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” reveals a man’s and a woman’s incongruent conflict on abortion, and the author’s fundamentally feminist position is visible in the portrayal of the woman’s independent choice of whether or not to keep the baby she is carrying. The plot is very simple in the story which is less than 1500 words long. A woman and a man spend less than an hour on a hot summers day at a Spanish train station in the valley of Ebro as they are waiting for a train heading for Madrid. Their dialogue takes up most of the space and only few major actions take place.

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In Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”, Jig has to decide if having an abortion is the right decision for herself. However, the dilemma of having an abortion is not told in the short story. The readers have to read between the lines to understand the situation Jig is in. This style of writing is called the theory of omission and was created by American writer Ernest Hemingway. The concept of the theory is to minimize the context of a short story to allow the text to be pieced together from what is not present.

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“Hills Like White Elephants” may be a short story about two people just talking in a bar of a station, but behind every word Hemingway uses lies a deeper meaning. It is necessary to point out that omitting further information is something that is typical to Hemingway’s writing style. The reader has to contemplate what the author wants to portray in his story in the first place. Although the author probably had one meaning in mind, the metaphors can be interpreted in many ways. While reading the story, what came up to my mind was whether the author’s personal life had to do something with it or not.

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According to Smiley, “The dialogue contains the essence of the story's power; for to read Jig's and the American conversation is to recognize the powerless frustration of parallel interchanges” (2). The girl's character passes changes throughout the story. It appears that “Hemingway works out the story's conflict, which revolves around the development of his female character” (Renner 28). The girl gains power and frees herself from the following the American man. In the beginning of the story, the girl take the initiative to speak which leads to the discussion: “'what should we drink?'

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No author exists who is completely satisfactory in every Way. Every author has his faults and limitations. Different critics may point out different points of limitations. In our discussion of Hemingway we cannot escape such a reading. Though he was a master and generally considered a genuine in the field of literary art, he has also faults and limitations.

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